Ginger is a small gem that allows you to test your projects using multiple versions of gem libraries. The idea is from Ian White’s garlic – hence the related name of this – but my approach is a bit different, since I don’t test my plugins from within a rails application. Maybe they can be merged at some point – I just hacked this up quickly to fit my needs.

To get it all working, you need to do four things. The first is, of course, to install this gem.

sudo gem install ginger --source=http://gemcutter.org

Next, add the following line of code to your spec_helper.rb file (or equivalent):

require 'ginger'

You’ll want to put it as high up as possible – in particular, before any require calls to libraries you want to cover multiple versions of.

Step number three is creating the sets of scenarios in a file called ginger_scenarios.rb, which should go in the root, spec or test directory of your project. Here’s an example, showing off the syntax possibilities.

require 'ginger'

Ginger.configure do |config|
  config.aliases["active_record"] = "activerecord"
  
  ar_1_2_6 = Ginger::Scenario.new
  ar_1_2_6[/^active_?record$/] = "1.15.6"
  
  ar_2_0_2 = Ginger::Scenario.new
  ar_2_0_2[/^active_?record$/] = "2.0.2"
  
  ar_2_1_1 = Ginger::Scenario.new
  ar_2_1_1[/^active_?record$/] = "2.1.1"
  
  config.scenarios << ar_1_2_6 << ar_2_0_2 << ar_2_1_1
end

Above, I’ve added three different scenarios, for three different versions of ActiveRecord. I also added an alias, as people sometimes use the underscore, and sometimes don’t. The gem’s name has no underscore though, so the value of the alias matches the gem name (whereas the key would be alternative usage).

You can have multiple gems set in each scenario – and you don’t have to use regular expressions, you can just use straight strings.

sphinx_scenario = Ginger::Scenario.new
sphinx_scenario["riddle"] = "0.9.8"
sphinx_scenario["thinking_sphinx"] = "0.9.8"

Don’t forget to add them to @config@’s scenarios collection, else they’re not saved anywhere.

To better discern different defined scenarios you can create them with a name. The name will be output when the scenario runs as the title.

sphinx_scenario = Ginger::Scenario.new('Thinking Sphinx 0.9.8')

And finally, you’ll want to run the tests or specs for each scenario. This is done using the ginger CLI tool, which parrots whatever parameters you give it onto rake. So just do something like:

ginger spec
ginger test
ginger spec:unit

Contributors

• Adam Meehan